Hello again! It's been a long week of working hard on my Honours project and giving up a social life. Ahhhh, to be a student! I'm in my final year at UCLan and as you may already know, no student can say no to free food especially when it's cooked in a kitchen you can see through, at a private room launch. That's what SoLita prepared for us when we were so kindly invited to the launch of their new private dining room in Preston!

So a lovely lady called Joana reached out to me and asked if she could write a piece for The Scarlet State on hair hacks. I've always experimented with hair colours, from bright red, orange and yellow to cooled down blue and purple ombres. At the moment I'm a dark brunette which feels boring compared to my previously colourful locks, so I've been searching for ways to spice things up a little through new hair styles! This is what Joana came up with. So many awesome tips!

Yesterday was my birthday! I was going to do a post on 20 things I learned while being 20 but the most important thing I've learned is this, which a couple of years ago it would have taken great confidence to post. I know that posting it now isn't even necessary, but yesterday marked twenty-one years in my body- 21 years of climbing, walking, dancing, bruising, breathing, bathing, tripping up, grazing, resting, running, stretching, travelling place to place with this old skin machine (that sounds gross haha) that is entirely my own.

If you haven't yet checked out this post and guessed what my latest project is about, then you may want to take a peek! There's some useful info there about why one-use, not-so-disposable plastics are BAD NEWS for us, our 'food', animals and the environment. I also talked about it a little over on Instagram last week. Don't worry, it's not all doom and gloom. There's so much room for change that we're swimming in it, as much as we are literally, swimming. in. it. Here are 5things that we need to stop buying and why!

In search of fluttery lashes for Spring, I decided to try out Joan Collin's Class Act Lash Growth Treatment* for 30 days. This burlesque-like, art deco, glamorously packaged product has been said to help grow your lash length by 169% (please, tell me how you worked this out!) and increase volume of your lashes in 30 days of using it once a day.

Firstly, I'm obsessed with this packaging! It reminds me a little of Charlotte Tilbury's but killlllls it as a complete set with the JC Compact Duo, you can tell it's a part of Joan's Timeless Beauty Range. I've not noticed any long term growth, but after putting it on nightly I noticed that my lashes were a little longer in the mornings when applying my regular mascara.

It's nice to peek into the minds of other people sometimes, that's why you and I read blogs, right? To me, a sketchbook is the same: a bundle of ideas and creativity that's all stemmed from the mind of one person. Other than that I'm just a nosy lil sh*t.

After explaining how busy March has been so far I thought it best to just show you what my hands and mind have been off making instead of just explaining! There's been a couple of projects on the go, so here are a few stray pages and details of the ones which turned out best.

As you know, even the smallest of hiatus here concludes with a catch up! It's been a long three weeks since I touched base in my corner of the internet which is crazy, since I was so regularly posting content for a good while. Being in the 'real world' without time to blog made it feel like a bigger chunk of my life was missing than there actually has been but it was nice to give attention to other things. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and how I've missed this little space! The truth is, I've been so busy for the last month that once my last assignment deadline was over, I simply needed a break, some time to recharge my creative batteries.

Mood

Scarlet State is a PR friendly blog and all sponsored posts, sample reviews or products I have been sent will be declared with an asterisk (*) or /and a small disclaimer at the end of the post. The opinions in these posts are mine only and I will only ever give my honest opinion.

All products featured from June/July 2016 are cruelty-free and vegan. Posts before this contain products possibly not suitable for vegans! For my full disclaimer, see here.